Dynamics of Bloch Matter Waves and Its Breakdown : a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Moving 1D Optical Lattice
C. Fort, Francesco S. Cataliotto, Jacopo Catani +6 more
We present the results of experimental work on the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) loaded in a 1D moving optical lattice. The system is studied both in the regime of low atomic density (expanding BEC) and high atomic density (trapped BEC). In the low-density regime, the stable dynamics of the system is well-described in terms of Bloch waves. In the presence of nonlinearities, as in a high-density sample, the Bloch waves are not stable solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) and dynamical instability takes place.
Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences•Jan 1, 2005•0 citations